Manufacturing operations frequently involve assembly of a number of components into a finished product unit. It is advantageous from an economic standpoint to automate as many as possible of the assembly operations and, in particular, it is advantageous to provide apparatus and mechanisms that enable mechanized delivery or assembly of components or sub-components of an assembly for incorporation into a completed product unit. In typical operations of this nature, the components may be delivered at a work station where personnel may manually effect the assembly, but it is more advantageous to combine the tape-form packaging system with automated .apparatus such as robotic-type mechanisms to effect the placement of the component or article carried by the tape packaging system into association with either a sub-assembly or a major component of a product unit.
Packaging systems designed to meet this general objective have been heretofore designed and utilized. These packaging systems generally comprise elongated flexible tapes of strip-form that are readily rolled or folded into compact packages for both economy of storage space and also minimizing transport costs. A previously patented example of the packaging system of this general type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,641 granted Apr. 22, 1986 to John R. Gelzer, the named inventor in this application. That prior art packaging system comprised an elongated carrier tape to which a secondary or packaging tape was removably secured and the two tapes cooperated to retain articles in a loop-form assembly. The packaging tape was mechanically interconnected to the carrier tape by mechanical elements which enabled the two tapes to be readily separated at the assembly or utilization point for the articles and to thereby release the article or component previously retained with the packaging system. Such a packaging system as shown in this identified patent required that the two tapes be mechanically joined while concurrently receiving the article to be packaged in the completed tape system. At the point of utilization of the articles, the two tapes were mechanically separated and, if desired, the tapes could be reused by returning them to the source of supply for the articles and reassembled in packaging of additional articles. Alternatively, those tapes could be simply shreaded and the material then disposed of or recycled such as by remanufacture into new tapes for subsequent use in packaging of other articles in a similar manner.
Another example of a tape-packaging system designed to achieve the objectives of economical savings and facilitation of operations is disclosed in co-pending application, Ser. No. 07/862,640 filed by John R. Gelzer on Apr. 3, 1992 and assigned to the same assignee as the present application and titled "GATED-LOOP TAPE PACKAGING SYSTEM AND TAPE MANIPULATING APPARATUS". The tape packaging system disclosed in this application, Ser. No. 07/862,640, in general, comprised a carrier tape to which a second tape or other elements were secured to form loops into which the articles or components to be packaged could be placed and retained for storage until subsequent dispensing of the articles. The tape packaging system also included elements or components that function as gates for retaining of the articles or components in the respective loops. Those gating elements could be selectively manipulated at a desired time for displacement of the gating elements to a position where they would not be in obstructing relationship to the loop that is of a generally elongated cylindrical form and, thus, enable articles to be either inserted into or removed from a loop.
A technique disclosed in the '640 application for enabling displacement of the gating element to a non-obstructing position comprised forming of the gating element along a marginal edge portion of the carrier tape and with each gating element being in alignment with a respective loop. The tape was formed from a material that was sufficiently flexible to enable the marginal edge portion to be flexed laterally out of the normal plane of the tape and, thus, carry a gating element laterally out of alignment with respect to a component carrying loop.
Yet another tape packaging system that has been previously utilized for automated operations at assembly points of components comprises elongated, flexible tape formed with a series of article-receiving pockets and having a cover tape rigidly fixed to the carrier tape in overlying relationship to an open side of the respective pockets. This pocket-form tape has a disadvantage in that it is not easily adapted to roll up into compact reels for transportation, storage or for dispensing operations. The reason it is not readily adapted to roll up is that there is a difference in longitudinal length of the carrier tape and the cover tape that occurs as the two tapes have dissimilar diameters when rolled, even when in close association and, thus, there is an incremental difference in longitudinal lengths as between the two components. Consequently, as such a composite packaging tape is rolled up into a reel, there will be mechanical distortion of one or both of the tapes because of this incremental difference in length that occurs when rolled. The cover tape is rigidly secured to the carrier tape such as by means of adhesive and, thus, there is no capability for accommodating this change or differentiation in relative longitudinal length that occurs as this tape is wound up into a compact roll.